Minor League Schedule: 5/15/11

For a more in depth review of yesterday’s games please check out our minor league wrap-up which can be found here. Despite the group of starting pitchers from yesterday, which didn’t look strong on paper, the four teams all won last night. Today’s starting pitchers look very strong on paper as you’ll see below so it’s a good day to follow the entire system. Altoona now has a 4 game win streak which moved them into 1st place in their division, one game ahead of two other teams. Lineups for today’s games will be posted as soon as they are made available.

Game notes: Andrew Lambo hit his 3rd homer of the year going 2-3 with 2 RBI’s. He is now hitting over .300 in the month of May. Pedro Ciriaco went 3-4 with 3 singles. Chase d’Arnaud went 1-3 with a run scored and a walk. He is now batting .260 on the year.

Game notes: Tony Sanchez went 2-4 with a double,triple and 2 RBI’s last night and Jordy Mercer hit a 2 run homer, his 7th HR of the season during the Curves 6-5 comeback win. Michael Colla got his 4th professional start going 5 innings and allowing just 1 run on 5 hits while striking out five. Brian Leach returned from a 2 week absence(ankle injury) to throw a scoreless inning.

Game notes: Kyle McPherson pitched 6 innings allowing 2 runs while striking out 4 and picking up his 3rd win. Brett Lorin followed him with 3 scoreless innings allowing just 1 hit and striking out three. Jarek Cunningham and Elevys Gonzalez each homered. It was the 1st for Elevys and the 9th for Jarek on the year.

Game notes: Brandon Cumpton threw 6 strong innings allowing just 2 hits and one run on a solo homer. He struck out four and induced 10 groundball outs. Matt Curry went 2-3 with his 10th double and 6th home run. Andrew Maggi went 2-4 with a double and Mel Rojas Jr stole his 10th base of the year.

John was born in Kearny, NJ, hometown of the 2B for the Pirates 1909 World Championship team, Dots Miller. In fact they have some of the same relatives in common, so it was only natural for him to become a lifelong Pirates fan. Before joining Pirates Prospects in July 2010, John had written numerous articles on the history of baseball while also releasing his own book and co-authoring another on the history of the game. He writes a weekly article on Pirates history for the site, has already interviewed many of the current minor leaguers with many more on the way and follows the foreign minor league teams very closely for the site. John also provides in person game reports of the West Virginia Power and Altoona Curve.